Following the road to ministry sometimes requires a willingness to take steps forward without knowing exactly where they’re leading. For Chad Madden, media director at Redemption to the Nations Church in Chattanooga, Tenn., that journey started at a very young age.
“I didn’t know I was going to be a church media director, I just knew I had a passion for original media,” says Madden. “A long time ago I went to a media conference and they had this really cool opening video that just captivated me. I wanted to know how to do that, how to make that, and how to give other people that feeling.”
“… they had this really cool opening video that just captivated me. I wanted to know how to do that, how to make that, and how to give other people that feeling.” Chad Madden, Media Director, Redemption to the Nations Church, Chattanooga, TN.
Madden began experimenting with graphic design during middle school, and picked up video as he moved into his high school years. Being involved in his local student ministry allowed him a chance to begin making projects with a small handicam for his church.
Another twist in Madden’s path took place soon after graduating high school and beginning college. “I went to Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., where I was in the Voices of Lee vocal group and got to tour around a lot,” Madden shares. “We were even on The Sing Off on NBC and came in third place on the show.”
While performing on television was enjoyable, having the chance to see the inner workings of a Hollywood production proved a far more pivotal experience. “I was amazed at the production within the competition--so it was a really great experience,” he says.
Destination ministry
“After college I went to work for the Church of God denomination, doing a lot of their graphic design work as well as some of their video work,” continues Madden. “Eventually my sister told me her church needed some help in the media area, so I started coming out and helping out on the weekends. I ended up going on part-time staff at Redemption to the Nations Church for about a year, then finally went full time … and have been there ever since.”
As media director at Redemption to the Nations, Madden’s portfolio includes everything from graphic design to social media to live production. “I like seeing lots of things coming together, from managing and training volunteers to seeing them use their gifts,” Madden states.
“The heart of our house is very simple, and it’s to aspire to be the most loving church in the world.” Chad Madden, Media Director, Redemption to the Nations Church, Chattanooga, TN.
His dedication to the mission of the church has also been a major factor in keeping him rooted to ministry over the past six years. “The heart of our house is very simple, and it’s to aspire to be the most loving church in the world,” Madden notes. “No matter who you are, where you’re coming from or what you’ve done--we just want to show love to people.”
That dedication to reaching and loving people is also at the core of how Redemption to the Nations employs technology. “I like using technology to reach beyond our walls,” states Madden. “Being able to send a live stream really helps us reach our mission of touching people in all different nations. That’s very rewarding.”
Expanding the scope
After several successful years of building credibility and trust with the senior leadership of his church, it became clear in 2016 that the technology that had serviced the ministry well would not be the right gear to move them into the future. “What we had was nice, but we realized that where we were going meant we couldn’t keep what we had,” explains Madden. “The growth of our church and the things we wanted to do in our city meant we were going to have to grow to accommodate that vision.
“We were hosting several conferenced and community events every year in our church, and whenever those outside groups would come we didn’t really have the equipment we pull it off. That meant we had to bring in someone from the outside whenever we’d have special guests or artists.”
“The lead pastor was the visionary on this. He saw that we weren’t getting what we needed [for an AVL upgrade], and he knew we had to do something about it.” Chad Madden, Media Director, Redemption to the Nations Church, Chattanooga, TN.
The ultimate decision to upgrade the church’s AVL systems ultimately boiled down to questions of lost opportunity. “The lead pastor was the visionary on this,” states Madden. “He saw that we weren’t getting what we needed, and he knew we had to do something about it. After becoming discouraged with not being able to get what we needed, the direction and the buy-in all came from him, there was no drama at all.”
Once the decision to upgrade had been made Madden and his team decided to partner with someone they’d already established trust with. “We had worked with LabeLive for our events. Their sister company, Intyde, specializes in system installs and we wanted to see what they could provide for the long haul,” shares Madden.
He adds, “We pretty much told them what we were looking for, but also that we wanted to be able to upgrade in the future. They took those directions, drew up a plan, and then worked together with us to form it out over some revision passes.”
Putting the pieces into place
One of the most important aspects of the upgrade was getting sound right in an auditorium requiring an extremely wide audio coverage area, which lead them to select QSC Wideline arrays. “The overall coverage and the quality of the sound were great. They really fit our auditorium very well,” states Madden.
The team chose the Digico SD9 console for the FOH position based on its reputation as an industry standard. “The quality, flexibility, and the fact that it’s a widely accepted system made it the right choice for us,” continues Madden.
When it came to selecting a lighting system the upsides of choosing Elation LED fixtures were too good to pass up. “Our campus really wasn’t built for what we do today, and it’s required a lot of work to get it up to today’s standards,” shares Madden. “The old PAR lights were very expensive to run. Elation lighting has produced results that look great live and look great on camera.”
“Our campus really wasn’t built for what we do today, and it’s required a lot of work to get it up to today’s standards.” Chad Madden, Media Director, Redemption to the Nations Church, Chattanooga, TN.
For lighting control Madden and his team went with the GrandMA2 to maximize the system’s accessibility. “It’s something that we could have multiple engineers use, and being able to have people create lighting shows remotely and plug those straight into our system was really nice,” says Madden.
The tech team at Redemption to the Nations wanted to ensure the video screens in the auditorium would coexist well with the upgraded lighting system. This consideration led them to select SquareV’s V3 LED video panel-based displays. “We were using projection before, and stage lighting would totally wash our screens out,” explains Madden. “With all of the lighting we’ve put in, you wouldn’t have been able to see anything today.”
He adds, “The SquareV V3 panels have a pixel pitch of 3.91mm, which offers great clarity, even at close range. The resolution on our big center wall is 2048x1152, which seems to be more than enough to create fantastic images.”
Designing Christmas
Final installation and integration of the new production systems wrapped up in October of 2017, just in time for one of the most important seasons at Redemption to the Nations. “Our pastor’s the biggest Christmas fan in the world, so Christmas is always going to be something big,” says Madden. “His excitement and joy just flows to the congregation. At the risk of being clichéd, it really is the best time of the year.”
The biggest immediate impact the new equipment had on the holiday productions was in the dramatically improved visuals. “We had done a similar Christmas program the year before, but now that we had all the new gear we could really enhance it with the design and animation aspects. We were confident of what would work because we already understood the flow.
“The resolution on our big center wall is 2048x1152, which seems to be more than enough to create fantastic images.” Chad Madden, Media Director, Redemption to the Nations Church, Chattanooga, TN.
“We really utilized our LEDs to create a Christmas atmosphere,” continues Madden. “The LED wall helped us create backgrounds and graphics for everything, and the image mapping really helped enhance what was happening on stage. The worship music was sync’d with the LED wall, which was really cool. People weren’t expecting it and it was really well received.”
The road ahead
As with any new tech system, Madden and his team have continued to invest significant time to education and training to get the most out of their new gear. “To whom much is given much is required, and at the end of the day we’re the ones that have to operate it,” continues Madden. “Everything on the weekend is volunteer-run except for sound, so the past year has been a big training season for us, especially in the area of troubleshooting. LabeLive has really helped out on that front with additional training.”
Ultimately the tech team continues to be mindful of making sure these new investments pay off in the effectiveness of the ministry at Redemption to the Nations Church. “The upgrade has been great, and there are lots of new amazing things that we’re doing that we weren’t able to do before,” shares Madden. “We’re doing our best with it, and we just pray that we’ll continue to be good stewards with what God’s blessed us with.”
